


About As Helpful As You Can Be (without being any help at all)

by Netgirl_y2k



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-23
Packaged: 2018-02-14 09:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2185920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Netgirl_y2k/pseuds/Netgirl_y2k
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Gwen first came to understand that she had magic, that she herself was the cause of many of the odd events that happened in and around the castle, she did what any sane subject of King Uther’s would do: she quietly, sensibly, and stoically had a complete hysterical breakdown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	About As Helpful As You Can Be (without being any help at all)

When Gwen first came to understand that she had magic, that she herself was the cause of many of the odd events that happened in and around the castle, she did what any sensible subject of King Uther’s would do: she quietly, sensibly, and stoically had a complete hysterical breakdown.

And then she got over it.

After all, what choice did she have? She could never leave Camelot; her dad would worry himself to death, and the very idea of leaving Morgana was unthinkable. 

Plus, it turned out that the ability to move things with your mind and talk to dragons was less of a marketable skill than you might expect.

And, yes, okay, the king would have her killed if he found out that she had magic, but he would also have her killed if he discovered that a mere maidservant was sleeping with his ward. So in the broader sense, little had actually changed.

Morgana… Gwen loved Morgana, she truly did. Loved her idealistic view of the world, and her castle-in-the-sky declarations of undying love. She had loved her even before the reoccurrence of Morgana’s childhood nightmares, and the necessity of Gwen sharing her bed, had turned out to be an endearingly clumsy seduction attempt.

Gwen could tell Morgana about her magic; _should_ tell her, really. Morgana was not like Arthur — under the influence of his new manservant the prince had graduated from indifferent to stone-faced at the regular executions of suspected sorcerers — Morgana railed against the king and his ban on magic.

But Gwen had never had any time for the old adage that love is blind; Morgana’s rages were less about the cruelty and injustice of it all, and more about the fraught relationship between herself and the king. And, with all the love and affection she could muster, Gwen knew that Morgana could be singularly self-involved; Gwen might be the one with magic, but Morgana would be the martyr.

Morgana made a sleepy sound in the dark. “I can hear you thinking, Gwen.”

"It’s nothing," said Gwen. She attempted to press a quick kiss to Morgana’s lips; in the dark she got her earlobe and a mouthful of hair. "Go back to sleep."

Morgana mumbled something incoherent, buried her face against Gwen’s neck, and was asleep again before she’d properly woken up.

Gwen closed her eyes and hoped that the senile dragon who lived under the castle would stop shouting inside her head long enough for her to get some sleep. 

Lately the poor, mad creature had been going on about how Morgana was the once and future queen, and how it was Gwen’s destiny to help her gain the throne. Gwen did not need a knack for prescience to know that sounded like a terrible idea. Uther and Arthur were hardly likely to step aside for her on the word of an elderly dragon and a enchantress-slash-maidservant. The whole thing just sounded like a recipe for unnecessary bloodshed.

The only thing to do was for Gwen to keep Morgana, as well as Arthur and Merlin, away from any demented lizards that might go giving them funny ideas, and then everything would be _fine_.

With that reassuring thought, Gwen curled into Morgana’s body and fell asleep.


End file.
